BETT 2010 – things I found out…

I work as a head of ICT in a large comprehensive school using Fronter as our VLE.  Therefore you will see a bias towards the following topics:

Home Access from Becta
eSafety
Fronter
ICT Strategy and CPD
Miscellaneous findings

Home Access from Becta 

– www.homeaccess.org.uk/
– The government’s made a grant of up to £528 available for low income families with children living in England; it’s targeted at those without access to the internet.
– Years 7-9 for secondary school
– the pilot was a huge success – 90% take-up
– Learn from pilot schools what level of engagement you require
– Eligible parents get a visa card with £528 to spend on a suitable system at approved suppliers such as Comet

eSafety 

Having run eSafety days for year 7 and Year 8 in the last month, needing to do something for older students, I was interested in what Childnet and CEOP to say.
– Safer Internet Day 2010 on the 9th February
– new materials ready in the next week
– new Know-it-All materials will be streamable off the website (Hurray!)

Fronter
– new parent portal – I liked the simplicity and the colour coding
– New look Fronter coming in the style of the new goal tool that they have available
– Investigate the following
– open/edit/save function
– Page tool
– Change language on page
I am not the only one to consider it very clunky at moment…

ICT Strategy and CPD
– I liked the new Vital website for ICT CPD

Miscellaneous findings
– Use Ofcom data in future eLearning assembly
– live@edu – free e-mail solution / online storage for schools from Microsoft
– semblio – free multimedia authoring package from Microsoft
– Office 2010 – look for plugin to offer alternative to ribbon…
– New Casio Projectors – 20,000 hours due to new laser/led technology
– www.ict-register.net/
– www.ictcpd4free.co.uk/

Hope this helps,

Chris